December 16–23, 1999

disc quicks|rock/pop

Various Artists

Knitting on the Roof

(Knitting Factory Records)

How’s this for high concept: A gaggle of indie rockers and alt-jazzbos take a stab at show tunes from Fiddler on the Roof. The latest installment in the Knitting Factory’s "Jewish Alternative Movement," Knitting on the Roof is too absurd to take very seriously, but too good to dismiss. Sure, the juvenile lyrics the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars add to the production number "Tradition" are funny ("I hear they picked a bride for me/ I hope she puts out"), yet they lack a satiric point like The Residents’ robotic husband-seekers in "Matchmaker." Much better are Dr. Eugene Chadbourne’s psycho bluegrass breakdown on "Miracle of Miracles," pianist Uri Caine’s edgily reverent "Sabbath Prayer" and David S. Ware’s brief tenor sax extrapolation of "Far From the Home I Love." It seems odd to give Magnetic Fields’ morose wordsmith Stephin Merritt the joyful diddy-diddy-doos of "If I Were a Rich Man," but he makes something of it with his minimal treatment, while audio slice-and-dice progenitors Negativland come off like cold formalists with their Topol-heavy "Tevye’s Dream." Overall, this Semitic stocking stuffer is fun if not entirely necessary, but in the face of the saccharine dross of most holiday music, raise your glass to Knitting on the Roof and shout, "L’chaim!"

—Brian Glaser

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